Hassett's $1-5 million Coinbase stake raises conflict-of-interest questions

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โดย Money & Banking·US·Read original
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Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, holds between $1 million and $5 million in Coinbase, the large digital-asset trading company, as of the end of 2025, a period when President Donald Trump's administration is rapidly reshaping federal cryptocurrency policy, raising questions about a possible conflict of interest between his personal investments and his government role. The disclosure appears in Hassett's 2025 financial disclosure documents, which list the Coinbase holding as vested stock. Hassett worked as an advisor to Coinbase from 2021 until January 2025, before joining the government, and the documents show he has not sold all of the shares, even though the second Trump administration has been in office for nearly 11 months. The documents, however, cover only 2025, so it is not possible to determine whether Hassett still holds Coinbase shares today. Three days after taking office in 2025, Trump established a presidential working group on digital asset markets under the NEC, and an executive order specified that Hassett's White House position, or his representative, would serve as a member, and that the group's final recommendations would be delivered to Trump through Hassett's office. The working group, chaired at the time by White House crypto advisor David Sacks, later proposed sweeping regulatory changes covering digital asset markets, banking, stablecoins and taxes. The Trump administration has also rolled back or changed many crypto policies from the Joe Biden era, established a government bitcoin reserve, and pushed Congress to create a more comprehensive federal framework for digital asset regulation. Hassett has said he did not take part in crypto-related matters while ethics officials were considering how to handle his investments, and when CNBC asked about the shares in June 2025, he said he had not sold them because he did not want to create the appearance of timing a sale for his own benefit, adding that he had received guidance from ethics officials and was still weighing what to do, and that in the meantime he had recused himself from any consideration or work related to crypto. White House spokesman Kush Desai said that from day one Hassett has fully complied with all ethics requirements, including recusal from all crypto-related matters. Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at the Democracy Defenders Fund, who previously served as an ethics lawyer at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said Hassett's Coinbase holding raises serious concerns about a conflict of interest, or at least the appearance of one. The issue has drawn more attention because crypto has become one of the signature policies of the second Trump administration, while digital asset businesses have also become a major source of personal income for Trump, who reported more than $1.4 billion in revenue from his family's crypto businesses in 2025, including ventures tied to World Liberty Financial. Coinbase, for its part, has played a major role in pushing for a new U.S. crypto regulatory framework. Just over a month after Trump took office, the SEC ended its enforcement case against Coinbase in a way that prevents the original claims from being refiled, saying the decision was aimed at supporting broader improvements to crypto regulation and was not based on an assessment of the facts of the Coinbase case. Coinbase was also a major financial backer of the Fairshake super PAC and its network in the 2024 elections and has announced it will contribute an additional $25 million ahead of this year's midterm elections. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC on Thursday that the Clarity Act is positioned to win approval ahead of a key Senate vote expected on September 15, adding that even if the bill fails, rulemaking by the SEC and CFTC will help bring more regulatory clarity to the crypto industry, and stressing that the U.S. will get regulatory clarity one way or another.

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Article centers on Hassett's $1-5M Coinbase stake and conflict-of-interest questions amid the administration's crypto regulatory overhaul, a mixed signal for Coinbase.

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